Third Group Attack on T-Third Line

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T-Third pulling into the Sunnydale Station
Photo by Flickr user sfistrita

Last weekend saw another violent group attack at a T-Third station in Bayview SFGate reports. This is the third of such attack since January:

The latest attack happened at 7:45 p.m. Saturday at Third Street and Williams Avenue. The victim, a 29-year-old man, was riding home on the T-Third line when a group of five youths, all about 14 to 16 years old, started to punch him, police say. The youths got off the train but the victim stayed on and reported the attack to the operator, said police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza.

The man was treated at San Francisco General Hospital and released, according to the police spokeman. As SFist and ABC7 pointed out, a woman was attacked by a group of teens last week on a Muni platform on Third Street. The surveillance camera recorded what appears to be a teenager grabbing her by the neck and throwing her on to the rails. A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with that attack, ABC7 reports. The woman is recovering.

Another man, who was 83, was attacked by a group of teens from behind after he left a bus stop on Third; he died in March.

We’ve heard our share of Muni violence, ranging from some fisty fracas to a really touchy situation involving guns (and let’s not even mention the fights caught on YouTube). But this group situation seems like a scary new thing. Police are stepping up patrols in the Third Street corridor, according to CBS5.

We hope police are able to bring the situation under control soon, and we can return to regular, nonviolent, non-criminal Muni coverage.

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Three Cup Shuffle Scam on Muni

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Photo by Flickr user photine

Muni rider Adam saw a group of people scamming Muni passengers on the 24 recently with the infamous “three cup shuffle” scam. I’ve heard about this scam being carried out on tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf and in some other tourist-heavy cities, but Adam’s description of what happened seems more threatening:

Today a friend witnessed a group of people gambling/scaming passengers on Muni. One guy would do the ‘which cup is the bottlecap under’ and bug nearby passengers about money, while flashing cash. A nearby passenger refused to pay attention so two other guys came up and threatened the guy into giving up his cash on hand. This was on a 24-inbound. They jumped off in the Haight. Not 10 minutes later another friend texts me that this same group of guys (whom he sees all the time) are on the 71-inbound doing the same thing. They intimidated a guy out of $40.

Adam said he called 311 and was transferred to SFPD, who then transferred him back to Muni. Adam also reports that the 311 operator would not take an anonymous report, but on the 311 site I found that you can indeed file an anonymous report about Muni.
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Category: diaries, WTF: Weirdness on Muni Tags: , , ,

Friday Subway Fracas

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Civic Center
Photo by Flickr user skew-t

Muni rider David has this harrowing tale.

OK, here’s the story. I got to the Montgomery Street Station last Friday after work. The platform was swamped with people…some usual Muni fiasco, some dead train being removed from service somewhere. Anyway, I got onto the third train that came (the first two were filled to bursting).

I’m crowded into the back of the train with everyone else. NBD. At Powell Street this guy next to me (I’ll call him Slacker for purposes of identification) gets upset because a middle-aged lady pushed past him. Then Slacker gets all aggro at another poor guy who squeezed in behind him. Doors close and we’re off.

Slacker is now screaming in the face of the poor guy behind him, who is doing his best to defend himself. Suddenly, Slacker sucker punches him in the nose. People grabbed him while some other passengers and I grabbed Slacker. Everyone is screaming, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Well, Slacker will have none of it. He starts flailing around in our hands and manages to get me in the lower lip with his elbow. I don’t really know what happened next, but the next thing I know, Slacker is face-down on the ground with my knee in his back and another guy holding his arms.

The train doors open at Civic Center and everyone on our train screams to the people on the platform to call the police and get the train driver. Of course they stare at us like cattle. Mooooo? I pulled out my cell and called 911. The operator was an idiot, but I did manage to finally get two cops to come.

Now a noteworthy moment of civic pride takes place. The cop asks the guy who was punched in the nose to make a statement so assault charges can be placed against Slacker (who has been cuffed and hauled off the train).  The guy is reluctant, but decides to go with the cop. Everyone on the train cheers him. Then the other cop comes looking for anyone willing to be a witness. A commuter lady raises her hand and agrees. Everyone on the train cheers!

The whole thing probably took a few minutes but it was truly time standing still. When all was said and done, I realized that blood had sprayed across the back of my shirt from the guy who got punched in the nose. My shirt was now completely unbuttoned, and somehow my jacket had come off. Luckily someone on the train had collected my stuff for me and gave them back to me.

Crazy, right? We’ve all been aggro during a Friday commuting disaster, but because of slacker guy, our train was pulled out of service and everyone was forced to go up to the street and take buses and streetcars.

The best part was that Slacker (handcuffed and sitting on the ground in the train station) got to be abused by everyone who had to leave the station because of him. The cop just stood there and laughed.

Category: diaries, reflection Tags:
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